Chapter 9: “The City of Valor” Mussen Morgeth

Chapter 9:
“The City of Valor” Mussen Morgeth

 

“CONGRATULATIONS, you’ve been promoted to Rank D! Please continue to nurture your valor.”

Several days had passed since my fight with the Grim Reaper, and now at long last we were D-Rank adventurers. To start I was happy we could finally take on monster-hunting requests!

“How about this one? The komyoni?”

“Pass. Find me something stronger.”

“It’s a D-Rank request, hence it’s a D-Rank monster.”

But soon we’d taken several such requests, and so far, the D-Rank monsters just weren’t a match for me. I was always stoked to face a new opponent, but these D-Rank shmoes inevitably fell short of my matches with the brokirin and the Grim Reaper. Simply put, the D-Rank monsters bored me to tears. I wanted to fight a monster

that got my blood flowing and my muscles flexing. This half-hearted training wasn’t making me any stronger, and I was getting kind of frustrated.

“Aren’t there any more brokirins around?”

“If another one of those fiends just happened to thoughtlessly wander by, Astarte would be gone in the blink of an eye!”

“I’m here, though, so no, it wouldn’t. Bring it on, brokirins!”

Filia sighed and put her hand on her hip. I’d seen the adventurers in the guild make a similar gesture—ahh, and then a deep sigh. Maybe they were captivated by Filia. I understood the feeling. With that slim hand on her hip and a worried look on her face, Filia certainly did look lovely.

“If only she had a decent personality to go with it…”.

“I can hear you,” she replied, puffing out her cheeks. It didn’t look like she was seriously mad, though. After spending the last few weeks together, I could tell the difference. Speaking of the last few weeks, or rather the last few days, I had an idea.

“Hey, Filia?”

“What is it?”

“Shoot me with magic again!”

Filia got flustered and rushed to cover my mouth with her hand. Surreptitiously, she glanced around the guild’s main room.

“Whad?” I asked her with a raise of my eyebrows.

“I already did that for you once, didn’t I? I’m not doing it again.”

“Whad? (What?) Id wuz phun do righd? (It was fun though right?)”

A few days prior, I’d asked Filia to hit me with magic and it had proved a pretty decent spot of training. I figured her abilities probably ranked just below A-level. There was hardly anyone equal to her, what with her advanced power in all four types of elemental magic: fire, water, lightning, and wind. When she hit me, she didn’t even seem like she was trying her hardest.

She’d been like “Noo, it’s really dangerous, I can’t go all out!” but that just made me all the more curious. Unfortunately, I lost my chance when, in the middle of training, I got a bit excited and said, “More… Come at me more!” That kinda put Filia off the whole project. Major bummer.

Please, oh please, all I wanted was for her to attack me again, and this time with her real power! If she’d only play her trump card!

“Fun for you, maybe! But now there’s a creepy rumor going around and it’s all your fault! They’re saying all kinds of stuff like, ‘Oh, that beautiful elf? She gets off on blasting her partner with magic, must be a huge pervert.’”

“You’re not?”

“Of course I’m not! And it wouldn’t matter if I was, because I’m not doing that anymore.”

Well, if she was going to draw that hard of a line, I was out of luck. It was another round of ho-hum D-Rank requests for us.

 

***

 

“Augh, everything is so boring!” I shouted, releasing every last one of my bottled-up agonies.

Ten days—ten whole days—of nothing but mind-numbing D-Rank requests, day after day. As the money piled up, so did my frustration.

“According to what I’ve heard, Yuri, the area around Astarte is supposed to be quite safe—excluding the Forest of Death, of course. It seems that by and large, nothing as dangerous as a brokirin appears except for maybe once a year or so.”

I was floored. Where did she learn that? “What?! When did you hear that? Why didn’t you tell me? I’ve been waiting and waiting for another brokirin to show up for ten days, Filia! Ten! Days!”

“If I told you I knew you’d say something like, ‘This town’s boring. Let’s go to the next one,’ or some such,” she said, lowering her voice to…imitate me? Hmm. Didn’t suit her. “But it seems you’re just about at your limit, so there you go. I’ve told you.”

“Then let’s go to the next town, Filia!”

She sighed heavily. “Of course. I’ll accompany you.”

“Really? To be honest, I thought you’d be more reluctant.”

“What’s the point? You’re incorrigible. Anyway, I did decide to follow you, Yuri.”

With that figured, the rest came quickly. We got the receptionist to help us research what city would be the most exciting for our next venture and identified several candidates. Out of all of them, I kept coming back to a city known as Mussen Morgeth.

Before we left, we decided to say goodbye to Sharon and her monster pseudog, Cocoa. Even though we’d only met once, when we told Sharon we were leaving she started bawling. I guess she’d really taken a liking to Filia. Me, though, she more or less ignored. Probably on account of my overwhelming appearance.

On our way out of Astarte, we just happened to bump into Babandongas, too, and we let him know we were leaving.

“Well, I’m an adventurer like you two,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll meet again!”

He had a point. Underneath that ridiculous hairstyle was a smart guy who said all kinds of right things.

 

“Well, we’re finally ready to depart, but how are we going to get to this Mussen Morgeth? Do we have a ride?” asked Filia.

Maybe it was because I’d been talking and talking about how excited I was to get the heck out of Astarte, but Filia didn’t know anything except for the fact that we were going to this Mussen Morgeth place. This was my responsibility, then. I scooped up Filia’s delicate body, slinging her over so her abdomen was resting on my shoulder.

“Um, excuse me? What in heaven’s name are you doing?” asked Filia from atop my shoulder.

“You asked if we have a ride, right? Well, allow me to answer that: we do. It’s me.”

“I’m going to…excuse me?”

“From the sound of it, Mussen Morgeth is about seventy miles west of here. If I run, we’ll get there in a couple hours.”

Filia squirmed, adjusting her posture to look at my face. “Did you just say run? You’re thinking of running there?”

“Yep. Fastest way, isn’t it?”

“He’s insane,” Filia muttered from by my ear—clearly she knew I could hear. “Just, absolutely mad.”

In any case, we took off for Mussen Morgeth.

 

***

 

“Please wait, Yuri! There’s no end to them!” shouted Filia in a panic. She was at her wit’s end, but I just crowed with laughter.

“Come on, ain’t that a good thing? Live in the moment!”

Right when Mussen Morgeth came into view, we ran straight into a fight with a swarm of monsters. There were two kinds of ’em locked in a struggle—one on two legs with scales and another on four with wings—and we crashed into them like an avalanche. With us in the fray it was a three-way battle royale and the whole thing devolved into utter chaos.

Now in the thick of it, Filia burnt a monster to a crisp using her fire magic.

“Can’t you use something more powerful than those weak baby spells?” I asked mid-punch.

We’d whittled down the fifty-ish monsters to around thirty, but we couldn’t let our guard down yet.

“My magical energy’s exhausted, so no, Yuri, I can’t use big flashy spells. Besides, taking time to cast a powerful spell leaves me wide open to attack,” Filia snapped, blasting another monster with wind magic.

“I see. Well then, I’ll just take care of ’em all in one go!” I fired off a Pistol Punch and exploded several monsters in a straight line.

“That looked more magical than my own spells,” mused Filia.

“Muscle magic is pure magic. Anyone can do it if they train! You can even do it with kicks!” I kicked the air. The force of my strike broke the sound barrier and created a shockwave, exploding a few more monsters as it traveled.

“That looked even more powerful than your punch…”

“In terms of power, the Pistol Kick is certainly stronger than the Pistol Punch, but it’s harder to aim. And like with those big spells of yours, it leaves me wide open. I’m not proud to admit this, but it’s a technique I can only use on weaker opponents.”

Under her breath, Filia muttered, “Pistol Kick…” She had to be reeling over how cool the name was.

If I could only master my Pistol Kick, I might be able to take the attack to the next level. I was sure of it. However, first, I wanted to get stronger with my fists.

Once we’d exterminated the monster swarm, we decided to take it easy and kept the final leg of our journey to the city nice and leisurely.

“Odd that the monsters around here are so much stronger than in Astarte, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah, no kidding. Hey, what rank were those monsters we just fought?”

“Oh, hmm. I’d say they were likely Rank C.”

“That’s really C-Rank? Yeesh. They weren’t weak, I guess, but there’s gotta be a huge gulf between B and C.”

“I suppose you’re right, now that I think on it. The same rule seems to apply to adventurers at those ranks as well.”

Before we knew it, we’d arrived at Mussen Morgeth. It was way taller than Astarte, not to mention pretty much every tree I’d ever seen. Actually, it really didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen. The entire city was constructed entirely of stone. In this world, it was most common for houses to be built with earth magic (or in the case of my cottage, the hard work of sweet muscles), but Mussen Morgeth was a gigantic exception. Actually, Astarte’s wooden houses were probably even rarer.

“Goodness, what an amazing city!” gasped Filia.

“Yeah, check out that coliseum! Are they going to hold a battle tournament there? Aww yeah, I’m gettin’ all fired up!”

“It looks like a real feat of engineering, too.”

Even with all the stonework wonders rising up around us, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the coliseum. It towered over the rest of Mussen Morgeth, this grand stone monolith just begging new challengers to step into the ring.

Mussen Morgeth was called the “City of Valor,” and once a year, a magic battle tournament raged in that very coliseum. The next tournament was in two weeks, which was one of the top reasons I’d wanted to come.

Sure, other places sounded equally dangerous and exciting, but they were too far away or I needed to do more research on ’em first, so they hadn’t been pragmatic choices. For now, we were here, and I was going to give it my all.

We booked a stay at an inn, then stopped by the local branch of the adventurer’s guild. We were too late to accept any requests, but we were ready to nose around for any we could take the next day.

But as we entered, a wave of curious gazes fell upon us. Probably because Filia was gorgeous, right? Once again, my muscles were going to lose out.

Couldn’t someone, somewhere in this mixed-up world of ours, understand the raw appeal of my rockin’ bod? As we walked to the bulletin board, I enlarged my muscles as coolly and casually as possible. Soon enough, all those eyes had traveled from my captivating partner to my extremely captivating body.

“Hey, those two are…pretty strong, huh? Especially the guy.”

“Huh? I mean, putting aside the girl—man, she’s so pretty it’s almost funny—there ain’t no way that inhuman master of muscle next to her is that strong. I mean, look. His clothes are all torn apart.”

“Probably one of those poor shmucks with no magical energy. Bet these two got all high and mighty back where they came from, two midsized fish in a little bitty pond, and now they’re here. But I’ll tell ya, one look at that chunky one and I can tell, he’s not gonna manage much. That cute girly, on the other hand…”

“Aw, I’d love to have her join my party, if you know what I mean. We could slay some monsters together. With wind magic, wink wink, nudge nudge.”

Oh ho! Though it was only a few people, some folks recognized my strength! Just as I expected, the people in Mussen Morgeth were considerably stronger than the people from Astarte. Very nice. Pretending not to hear the praise, I scanned the bulletin board.

“Hm?” I tilted my head, not quite sure what I was seeing. “Hey, doesn’t something seem weird to you?”

“Yeah, it does.” Filia crossed her arms and let out a “hmph,” tilting her head, too. There we stood next to the board, heads tilted, “hmmph”-ing together.

“What’s the matter, little lady?” said a huge guy. Perhaps he saw we were confused. To be clear, when I said he was huge, I meant he was tall. In terms of width, he was just as thin and frail as everyone else.

“Your bulletin board skips Rank D,” said Filia.

Just as she said, there wasn’t a single D-Rank request posted on the bulletin board. There were E-Rank requests, but there was no point in us coming all the way to the city just for those.

The man gave us a long, pitying look. “Well, little lady, I’m sorry to break it to ya, but there aren’t any D-Rank requests. This city’s more dangerous than that. All outgoing requests are Rank C or higher.”

Wait, wait, really? So did that mean that even after coming all this way, we had to regress back to E-Rank requests? Filia glared at me. It was almost like I could read her mind: Yuri, this is all because you couldn’t stop whining about Astarte and dragged us all the way here without doing proper research, you ab-addled idiot!

“Yuri, this is all because you couldn’t stop whining about Astarte and dragged us all the way here without doing proper research, you ab-addled idiot!”

Oh, she actually said it out loud! Okay, yeah. Coming here had been the result of me acting on my own authority without consulting her and just…going for it. My credibility was hitting rock bottom right about now. Was there really nothing I could make out of this?

Well, I figured I could at least try asking this guy for insight.

“Hey, fella. Isn’t there some kind of secret trick or backdoor option we can use? I wanna get straight from Rank D to Rank C.”

When I asked him, his face went red. “Hey, is that really the tone you wanna take with me?”

Oh, I guess I’d made him mad? I mean, using stuffy language was a big pain in the butt, so I didn’t usually bother. Guess I might have come off as rude. Something to think about. I mean, when I had time. And the energy. And the inclination.

“I’m so sorry, this is our last chance, sir,” Filia pleaded. “Please, is there anything we poor, lost adventurers can do?” Filia leaned forward, clasped her hands together, and looked at him with her bright, hopeful eyes. Sly. Just like I’d expect from her—veeeeery sly.

The man’s face went red again, but not with anger. No, one of the most beautiful girls in the world was pleading with him in her coyest, most calculated take on an innocent damsel in distress. Anyone would get flustered when faced with that attack. Heck, even I was feeling a little flustered.

Blushing and stammering all the while, the man gave in and explained a method for getting to Rank C. Apparently if we could make it through to the advanced round of the upcoming magic battle tournament, we would be recognized as worthy of Rank C and the guild would finally let us accept C-Rank requests.

“Thank you ever so much for your kindness!” said Filia in a high, birdsong pitch. She granted the man a dazzling, flowery smile, and he went even redder, like a boiled octopus.

“Oh! Uh! Thanks! To you, actually! M-maybe we can have something to eat together sometime? In a restaurant?” He coughed. “Together,” he repeated.

“Ohhhhhhhh no, oh goodness, I’m so sorry! You see, I’d be scared to be all alone with a gentleman such as yourself! Thank you ever so much for the offer, though, tee hee!” She nodded at me. “All right, Yuri, let’s blow this joint.”

With that, Filia took my hand and we left the guild. What powerful dark energy! I’d be scared to be all alone with a gentleman such as yourself. Brutal. Nothing scarier than a woman who’s honed her cuteness to a razor’s edge.

Shortly after we stepped out of the guild, Filia looked back at me and with puffed up cheeks said, “You do realize I obtained all that information for your sake too, Yuri? And it wasn’t a lie, either—I would be scared to be all alone with that man.” Reading my mind again.

“Aren’t you always alone with me, like at the inn?”

“Yes, but that’s—” Filia paused. She spoke quietly. “Yuri, it’s not because—see, you’re different, and special, so…” Filia trailed off. If she did say anything, I couldn’t hear it, not even with my well-trained ears. Not that I always understood what she said even when I could hear her.

I blinked. “Special? Special how? In what way?”

“Uh…ooh! I know, it’s because rather than a guy, you’re more like an overgrown muscle, Yuri!”

What was with the “ooh!” there? Was it a battle-cry meant to intimidate me? She had to use her lower lungs, too, if she wanted to try one of those. Even so.

“You can say some nice things after all, huh, Filia? Yeah, that’s right! Before I’m a man, I’m a muscle! Hrnnnnn.” I flexed my arm, released my muscle, and showed off my sublime bicep to Filia. Come on, check ’em oouuuuuuuut! “Oh, one more thing. If you want to intimidate someone, you gotta dish out something with more oomph! Lower lungs, fill ’em allll up! Here, check it out, like this. HOOAAAHHH!”

“Yuri,” said Filia, “you are an idiot beyond salvation. Also, you’re far too noisy, so could you please, oh, please shut up?”

What the heck was with this kind of treatment? Even though I was showing her proper techniques and everything! I just didn’t get Filia. When I got quiet just as she told me to, Filia let out a laugh.

“Hee hee. You really are a bizarre person after all, aren’t you, Yuri?”

“Really? From my point of view, you’re way more bizarre.”

“Aw, you really think so?” Filia asked in a singsong voice, putting a finger to her cheek and tilting her head at me.

Well, at least she was in a better mood.

 

***

 

Now that we were set to enter the magic battle tournament, we needed to undergo some special training. It was early in the morning and the birds sang their morning hymns. Filia and I stood facing each other on an open field just outside of Mussen Morgeth. Since only low-rank monsters showed up in wide open fields like this, it was the perfect place for special training. We’d also come out pretty far from the city proper, so we didn’t see any signs of other people in the area.

Nobody else around. Good visibility. I kind of felt like we were really out in the wilds. The wind blew gently, playing with Filia’s long silver hair, and her clothes fluttered in the breeze.

“Do I really have to shoot you with magic directly, Yuri?” asked Filia uncertainly.

“How else am I gonna understand how effective your attacks are? I mean, to be frank, I want you to get stronger, too! And you know, we’re going to be facing B-Rank adventurers in this tournament. I’m aiming to be the champion, but if you stay at your current level, you might not even make it to the advanced round. If that happens, you won’t even qualify for Rank C, and then we won’t be able to take requests together, right?”

“Yes, it’s all out of the kindness of your own heart, and definitely not because you just intend to train yourself.” Filia’s silver eyes focused on me with laser precision, brimming with doubt.

However, I’d learned that at times like these, I just had to say what I was really feeling. Otherwise, she’d just read my mind. “That’s part of it, too, yeah. But it’s not a lie that I want to be able to keep taking requests with you, Filia.”

“Okay… I’ll do what I can.”

Despite her reluctance, Filia agreed in the end.

And I mean, I did want to stay partners. Just psychologically speaking, having an ally with recovery magic brought me profound peace of mind. I wanted to take requests together for as long as we possibly could.

Not that those thoughts really came to mind whenever I ran into someone strong, perhaps unfortunately. At that point, all I could ever think was “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!”

“First is fire magic,” I said. “Bring it!”

“Okay, okay! Yeesh.”

At my signal, Filia blasted me with a fire spell and I took it head-on. Oof! Getting hit with her magic really was good training after all.

Step by step, spell by spell, we confirmed things like how many times Filia was able to cast her spells before she tired, how fast it took her to fire off this or that magic, and finally held a mock battle…not that I did any fighting back. Only Filia was on the attack; I took whatever punishment she could dish out.

After all, this training wasn’t for me, it really was for Filia’s sake. Please believe me there, okay? When I observed Filia’s fighting style, I’d noted her magic was pretty powerful, but her spellcasting was so random. No sense of tactics at all. When I asked Filia about that, she said it was because she had only ever fought against lower rank monsters.

I didn’t think that was going to get her anywhere fast in the tournament, so I started teaching her how to properly land her attacks. We put our practical training on hold for a moment, and—standing in the middle of the open field—I gave her a lecture.

“Listen up, Filia. What do you think you should do to try and hit an evasive enemy?”

“If they’re evasive, you’re going to want a fast spell. Isn’t that obvious?”

“That’s certainly important, yeah. But it’s not enough. You’ve gotta predict your opponent’s movement. To do that, you need to really concentrate and keep your eyes open. As long as you can read your opponent’s movements, with your level of magical power, you should be able to handle yourself pretty well.”

“Predict their…hmm. Interesting.” Filia nodded rapidly, as if she were realizing something for the first time. With her skill, I would’ve thought Filia had already known beginner stuff like that, but I guess her raw talent couldn’t make up for a lack of combat experience.

“Another effective option is to block your opponent’s escape routes. Lure your opponent in, then nail ’em with your magic. You’re a clever one, Filia, so I think that’s probably a good general strategy for you.”

“Understood. I’ll give it a try.”

With another quick nod of understanding, we once again resumed our mock battle. After that talk, her movements improved quite a bit. It was like I could see more resolve in her actions. Filia was intelligent, after all. If we continued at this rate, there was no telling how much stronger she’d be by the time of the
tournament.

At which point she collapsed, huffing and panting. “I’m…ugh…completely out…huah…of magical energy…” Despite the fact that it hadn’t even been two hours since our training began, her legs were jelly, wobbling like she was a newborn fawn.

“I suppose that’s it for today then, huh? Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

“And you’re…not…out of breath?” Filia heaved.

I shrugged. “We’ve just got different daily routines.”

“Guhhhh. It’s…annoying, but I can’t argue…with that,” said Filia, her face twisting with frustration.

Despite her attitude, she did seem way more motivated than before.

With Filia beat and further training a non-option, we walked back to the inn, Filia wobbling like a zombie all the while. At the inn, she immediately dove onto the bed. Although she did clean her body and her clothes using her practical magic, Filia was so wiped that once she laid down, she didn’t move a single muscle. Probably the lack of magical energy.

Recovery magic treated injuries, but it didn’t appear to be effective in healing fatigue. Whenever Filia tried to ease her exhaustion with it, she completely tapped her arcane reserves.

“I’m so tired. I can’t even move a single step…alas. What a terrible fate…”

“Great work today. Rest up.”

Filia was still trembling so I stepped outside to let her nap. It wasn’t like I was heading out to play or anything, though. No, I had grocery shopping to do.

Walking around the city and all its huge stonework all alone felt kind of strange, though. Up until that moment I’d almost always been out and about with Filia.

It had been several days since our arrival in Mussen Morgeth. Maybe it was a good idea for me to get a better look at the place, really get the lay of the land. Filia had gone out to investigate Astarte while I was training, but I hadn’t yet been blessed with the opportunity to check out a city all by myself.

“This place is pretty lively, huh?” I said to myself.

I wandered between sights and landmarks that I hadn’t ever really seen until that moment. A variety of stores selling every imaginable thing lined the streets, and shopkeepers loudly called out to passersby to come in and give it all a look, because boy did they have a deal for you! People peeked at wares set up in tidy little lines, picked and bought this or that, finished their meals at street carts, made their way to wherever they were headed in no pattern I could discern, and so on. As I absentmindedly meandered through the steady stream of people, I suddenly remembered Filia, who was practically half-dead back in our room.

Uh oh. Filia might well be awake and tired of waiting for me. After grabbing the rest of the food on my list at a nearby shop, I hurried out the door—and someone lightly tapped me on the shoulder.

“Sir! What’re ya doin’, forgettin’ stuff ya just bought?”

A hand floated right there by my shoulder. Yeah, just, you know, a hand.

I glanced back into the store and saw the merchant inside didn’t seem to have anything past his right wrist, so…was this floating thingy his right hand? Yup, it was completely separated from his body, and yet it was moving smoothly along like it was all fine. To be perfectly honest, I found it kind of creepy, but it didn’t seem like the merchant agreed.

“Ah, okay. Thanks,” I said. I took the items he’d brought to me, put them in the bag of holding at my waist, and bolted back to the inn.

 

Later, while we shared our evening meal, I described the encounter to Filia. Filia had recovered enough to sit up, and though her arms were still shaking, she was able to bring the food to her mouth.

“So, that’s why you looked so spooked when you got back. I don’t really get it, though? I don’t think there’s anything especially strange about that hand…” said Filia, only after thoroughly chewing and swallowing her food. Never talking with her mouth even a little full. How elegant!

“But a floating right hand just seems strange no matter how you think about it, right? Is that magic? In that case, what kind of magic is that?”

I mean, his right hand was moving around even though it was disconnected? What was up with that? I hadn’t ever heard of that kind of magic. Even my muscle magic couldn’t match it. The fact was that some random merchant had been able to do something totally wild with a hundred potential combat applications even though it didn’t seem likely he’d ever seen battle. And how?

After hearing my questions, Filia tilted her head to the side and responded in a thin, trying-very-hard-not-to-snap voice. “Yuri, are you really telling me that you don’t know about abilities?”

“Abilities? What’re those? I don’t know anything whatsoever!”

“You don’t need to sound so excited about that.” Pushing past her exasperation, Filia explained. “‘Abilities’ refer to people’s unique constitutions and special capabilities. Normally, people have only one ability, though I’ve heard it said there are those with two called ‘dual ability holders.’ Abilities also come in a wide variety. Some cost magical energy to wield, others require sheer endurance, and some may be used freely at will.”

“Whoa. Wait, so does your Telepathy count as one of these abilities then?”

“That’s right. I’m actually fairly certain I already told you that, though?” Filia frowned.

C’mon, as if I’d remember something like that. Even an intellectual like me has his limits. “Really? Even so, I haven’t had many opportunities to see these so-called abilities in action, not until just now, anyway. Do most people just not have them?”

Maybe it was because I didn’t consciously pay attention to most other people, but I still didn’t have any memory of ever having seen someone else using some weird magic.

“Most people do, actually. There are some few who don’t have abilities, but it’s a rare condition. Those people are labeled—rather rudely, in my opinion—as ‘incompetents.’ People like you Yuri, who cannot use magic, are also called ‘incompetents.’” An odd, complicated look crossed Filia’s face as she said this.

“I see,” I said lightly. Incompetent because I couldn’t use magic, eh? I didn’t really care if it was derogatory. These folks could say whatever they wanted, I was still stronger than any lame name-callers.

And wait, actually, it wasn’t even accurate! I could use muscle magic. Why wasn’t that considered a full-fledged arcane art? Regardless, they’d probably call me incompetent anyway for not having any of their high-falutin’ abilities.

“Let’s see, what else…ah, right. It would be ridiculous if abilities were all combat-oriented, so there are some abilities that simply aren’t meaningfully usable in battle. Furthermore, some are incredibly specific.”

“That so, huh? So, for example, the former would be like being able to read a book in an instant, while the latter would be something like the ability to get super buff but only at night. Something like that?”

“Yes, something like that. And your ability has nothing to do with effort or training. Only luck. Whatever you’re born with—or not born with—is what you have for the rest of your life.”

Aww. I’d kinda wanted to see if I could get some sort of ability myself. Something like ‘the ability to continuously enlarge all of my muscles!’ That would be pretty interesting.

Filia read my mind and furrowed her brow. “That’s an idea that could boggle the mind of everyone in the entire world.”

Yeesh, she was always so extreme about these things.

“Well, that’s because my imagination goes far beyond the ordinary.”

“Far, far beyond and straight to the land of ‘deeply stupid.’”

Bang bang. She’d shot me down. Filia gazed at me with a triumphant look on her face and let out a smug little chuckle.

In retaliation, I ever so lightly touched Filia’s quivering, delicate arm.

“Boo,” I said.

“EEK!” The instant I touched her skin, Filia immediately recoiled. Then she let out a soundless scream. I was surprised by the degree of her reaction. Was her condition really that bad?

“You’re so awful! Just horrendous! Vile demon, Yuri!”

“S-sorry.”

I’d made her mad. Scary.

Filia glared at me with broken-hearted resentment in her wide, teary eyes. I had no choice but to apologize.